Cliffy B Thinks PlayStation VR Is Still Kind of Clunky

When it comes to rockstar-level video game developers, it’s hard to think of a better spitting image than Cliff Bleszinski. The 42-year-old game designer is often proclaimed as the Tony Stark of the gaming industry, and he’s quite open about his thoughts about what’s happening in the industry as a whole. Today is evidently no exception, as Bleszinski offered his thoughts on the PlayStation VR headset, stating that he believe the platform was still kind of clunky.

The PlayStation VR is Sony’s attempt at bringing virtual reality gaming to the untapped console-owning demographic, and is due to come up in any conversation about the state of VR itself. The headset launched just 5 months ago, but Cliff lamented the fact that the majority of the games released for the platform have ended up being low-budget, unimaginative titles that only deliver little gimmick experiences.

Here’s what the man himself doled out in an interview with GameSpot:

VR is very near and dear to me. I have a few ideas I’d love to play with, but again the friction point is getting VR installed. Sony’s got a great headset but still it’s kind of clunky, the price point, there’s a lot of shovelware on VR right now. A lot of crappy Unity games where it’s like, ‘Oh look I’m throwing a can.’ Yeah, big deal right? No actual real games, and part of that is this catch 22 of a lot of the proper platform-holders of VR finding funding. You can’t make a really deep, great game arguably in VR for like a million bucks. So you’ve gotta really pony it up.

Cliff Bleszinski unsurprisingly pointed to Epic Games‘ own Robo Recall as an example of a quality VR product, and it’s hard to disagree with him. The game is well designed, performs smoothly, looks great, and delivers consistent action entertainment. The developer later expanded on his statement via Twitter, clarifying that he was simply intending to say he was tired of the gimmick shovelware-quality VR games that have flooded all VR platforms in general.

I've said it before and I'll say it again – there's not a lot of "real" games for VR, too many "gimmick" experiences ATM. That's the quote.

Virtual Reality’s burgeoning attempt to break into mainstream gaming is far from over, but the last few years have brought the industry its greatest ever strides. The Oculus Rift brought everything into the spotlight even before Oculus itself was purchased by Facebook, and then Sony’s PlayStation VR helped bring the medium in an accessible way to more gamers than the hardware-intensive PC headsets ever could.

Whether these platforms get their fair share of quality games – by Cliffy B’s own standards – remains to be seen, though.